214 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



wayfarer's advantage ; the great woodpeckers, 

 cheerful chatterers, and the jays, who can't be 

 made to rank that way, friendly as you may be 

 inclined, the swallows, who were few, the martins 

 fewer, and the sand-martins scarcer still ; the 

 butterflies, about one to the square mile ; the 

 larks and all the other songsters, from the missel- 

 thrush up among the tall elm tree-tops to the 

 nightingale in the bush at its foot ; the affable 

 long-tailed wrens in the reeds, and the melodious 

 modest hedge-sparrow — worth, to my mind, a 

 gross of the much-too-much-over- written nightin- 

 gale ; the genial roadmen, and the bakers, 

 butchers, and other carters who offer a lift — as 

 a matter of course and courtesy^ — and -the good 

 folk who are at home under the sign of the 

 Plough, the Anchor, and the rest. 



I cannot help once more talking on what 

 appears to be a very favourite subject, roads and 

 milestones, concerning which we have again had 

 many interesting letters from and for Refereaders. 

 Now, on my own, and with particular reference 

 to the dubious starting-points of road measure- 

 ments, let me ask the many friends who visit 

 Newmarket if they know where the town milestone, 

 the one from which the to's and from's Newmarket 

 announced on various routes of approach or 

 departure, dates ? Often I used to seek for the 

 memorial, and vainly, since natives can only tell 

 you about where they think it is or ought to be, 

 and go no nearer absolute precision. I can mark 

 it right down. On a house (Mr Barrow, the 

 chemist's) opposite the Rutland Hotel you will 

 find it, round the corner, set at right angles to the 

 road line. I may add that by the time you have 

 walked a couple of miles from this, straight along 



